911 Text Alerts
- Thread starter NJEMT8
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Our Search & Rescue organization switched to the OneCallNow system last year. Basically, the rundown:
Cons:
-You don't have a cool pager to tell your friends about.
-When the phone call is received, you must listen to at least 10 seconds of the pre-recorded message before hanging up, or it will KEEP CALLING YOU. (I'd say that's a PRO...)
-Those with sub-par carriers may not receive the callout immediately, but this is rare and the system keeps trying to get through until it is successful.
Pros:
-Everybody handed in their pager for a $60 deposit, which you could keep or donate to the service.
-Some people forget their pagers, but very few people forget their cell-phones. Also, they take better care of their phones than pagers, since it's theirs.
-You can immediately respond via same cell phone whether you are able to respond, or "no go". I recommend having only those who are able responding.
-COST COST COST! Pagers each had their own service fee and deposit. OneCallNow is a flat rate monthly, and all you have to do is add the phone numbers and e-mail addresses you want it to call out. They may also give special rates to groups like SAR and EMS over, say, baseball teams, etc.
Calgary Search & Rescue currently has over 250 active members, and 50 reserve, and we are able to notify 100% of them within minutes of an active callout, or even just reminders for mock searches and training exercises. You are sent a text message or call, as well as an email, based on what specifications you'd like when you register your group.
Adding and removing numbers/emails from the list is simple, easy, and as far as I know, free.
If you want me to e-mail or give you the address of the Operations manager that takes care of callouts and messaging, let me know. Otherwise, you can probably find everything you need to know on the website, http://www.onecallnow.com
-Ryan.
Cons:
-You don't have a cool pager to tell your friends about.
-When the phone call is received, you must listen to at least 10 seconds of the pre-recorded message before hanging up, or it will KEEP CALLING YOU. (I'd say that's a PRO...)
-Those with sub-par carriers may not receive the callout immediately, but this is rare and the system keeps trying to get through until it is successful.
Pros:
-Everybody handed in their pager for a $60 deposit, which you could keep or donate to the service.
-Some people forget their pagers, but very few people forget their cell-phones. Also, they take better care of their phones than pagers, since it's theirs.
-You can immediately respond via same cell phone whether you are able to respond, or "no go". I recommend having only those who are able responding.
-COST COST COST! Pagers each had their own service fee and deposit. OneCallNow is a flat rate monthly, and all you have to do is add the phone numbers and e-mail addresses you want it to call out. They may also give special rates to groups like SAR and EMS over, say, baseball teams, etc.
Calgary Search & Rescue currently has over 250 active members, and 50 reserve, and we are able to notify 100% of them within minutes of an active callout, or even just reminders for mock searches and training exercises. You are sent a text message or call, as well as an email, based on what specifications you'd like when you register your group.
Adding and removing numbers/emails from the list is simple, easy, and as far as I know, free.
If you want me to e-mail or give you the address of the Operations manager that takes care of callouts and messaging, let me know. Otherwise, you can probably find everything you need to know on the website, http://www.onecallnow.com
-Ryan.
Mountain Res-Q
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Ditto on the above. The Ambulance Service in my area has been using this for years, and on SAR we followed suit this last year. Personally, it works SOOOO much better than our pagers.
The way it works for us is that every Dispatcher and Team Leader has all Team Members cell phone e-mail addresses (such as 1234567890@att.net) on their computers or on their iphones (or similar). You can write out a short message on email and send it to all the cell phone e-mail addresses in the group. We do not have any special set up for this, as any computer can send texts to phones assuming your phone allows texting and you have the cell e-mail address. If I had your cell-phone e-mail address, I could send you a page via my computer right now that says something like "All SAR Members call XXX-XXXX in regards to a Rope Rescue atEagle Meadow." You can respond back via texting, but we have a different system for confrming availablity set up.
As Ryan said, yes there are some pros and cons. On the upside, the cell phones are far more reliable; faster than the pagers with better coverage... but that is also carrier based, as some of our Team Members have not recieved call outs for 2-3 hours post initial call out. Another con is always coverage area. Some of the Team Members live in dead spots, which means that they have to have a pager as well. Cost is a pro, maybe. Pagers are a dead technology that cost too much for what they (don't) do. On the other hand, depending on your texting plan, it could cost the Team Members. Personally, I recieve texts for free, but pay to send them. Other team members have to pay for every text sent or recieved, and that can add up quick unless you have a texting plan or a system is set up by your organization.
All in all, it is a great set up if your cell providers are good and cell towers to not go down... we are using this texting system backed up with pagers as needed, and we can revert to a calling tree if needed... but after more than a year using this system I can say that I honestly love it...
Another concept we toyed with was reverse 911. With that system, all team members phone numbers (cell, home, work) can be called at the same moment and a message recorded by a Dispatcher will play when you answer a phone. Basiclly, we as a county already are paying for the reverse 911 system, so we are gonna use it... But we didn't when the texting system worked so well...
The way it works for us is that every Dispatcher and Team Leader has all Team Members cell phone e-mail addresses (such as 1234567890@att.net) on their computers or on their iphones (or similar). You can write out a short message on email and send it to all the cell phone e-mail addresses in the group. We do not have any special set up for this, as any computer can send texts to phones assuming your phone allows texting and you have the cell e-mail address. If I had your cell-phone e-mail address, I could send you a page via my computer right now that says something like "All SAR Members call XXX-XXXX in regards to a Rope Rescue atEagle Meadow." You can respond back via texting, but we have a different system for confrming availablity set up.
As Ryan said, yes there are some pros and cons. On the upside, the cell phones are far more reliable; faster than the pagers with better coverage... but that is also carrier based, as some of our Team Members have not recieved call outs for 2-3 hours post initial call out. Another con is always coverage area. Some of the Team Members live in dead spots, which means that they have to have a pager as well. Cost is a pro, maybe. Pagers are a dead technology that cost too much for what they (don't) do. On the other hand, depending on your texting plan, it could cost the Team Members. Personally, I recieve texts for free, but pay to send them. Other team members have to pay for every text sent or recieved, and that can add up quick unless you have a texting plan or a system is set up by your organization.
All in all, it is a great set up if your cell providers are good and cell towers to not go down... we are using this texting system backed up with pagers as needed, and we can revert to a calling tree if needed... but after more than a year using this system I can say that I honestly love it...
Another concept we toyed with was reverse 911. With that system, all team members phone numbers (cell, home, work) can be called at the same moment and a message recorded by a Dispatcher will play when you answer a phone. Basiclly, we as a county already are paying for the reverse 911 system, so we are gonna use it... But we didn't when the texting system worked so well...
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Because I'm curious as a cat... not that it relates to me. Does this go to the cell that you yourself carry or do you have to have a specific phone? My service doesn't always get reception when I'm in certain buildings, so I'd be concerned about that kind of notification.
DV_EMT
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so for pharmacy sick calls... we use a program called sendwordnow.com. Its pretty quick... but the text a lot of the time come in 2 parts which is a downside.
but its better than nothing... and pretty cheap i believe
but its better than nothing... and pretty cheap i believe
I know some agencies that have it set up through county to alert them via text messages, however the biggest downside I see is no easy way to turn it off. The smaller volunteer agencies around here do about 1000 calls a year, and I'm sorry, if I wasn't planning on responding to a call I really couldn't care less about someones medical problems at 2AM via text messages while I can hardly remember not to text an ex-girlfriend.
Mountain Res-Q
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Any phone can do this as long as texting is part of your providers plan. As long as you know your cell phones e-mail address you can send an e-mail to your phone from your computer. And visa versa; you can send a text from your cell to your computer. This system just goes one step further in that a Dispatcher can send out the e-mail from there computer to ALL cell phones that need to recieve the message. I can send out a page to every team member right now from my laptop if I wanted; and I do if I need to inform them of upcoming training.
Well, if you are an on-call volunteer (24/7) as I am, then it isn't a problem. I have accepted the resposibility to respond to every call I can. So if my cell phone recieves a page and I am available, I go. If I am out of county or on vacation, I still recieve the page, but it is an "oh, well" situation. We need everyone to recieve the page so that they can follow procedure and call in with a "I am responding" or "I am unavailable" response, so that we can make plans (especially helpful on multi-day Ops).
On the other hand, the system can be set up so that only those on call or on duty recieve the pages... (but if you are an on-call volunteer, itis generally understood that if nothing else is more pressing, you will respond, so you should have your pager on.) For instance, every time the crew for a local ambulance changes, those crew member's cell phone e-mail addresses are attatched to that Unit and everytime that unit gets a call their cell phones get paged. It works for them. Once they are off duty, they recieve no pages except those from supervisors and administrators advising about shift availability, training, and "oh, crap, we have an MCI, all available personnel respond to your stations".
However, we also have it set up so that if you do not like the Cell Phone Paging system you can opt to only use your provided pager, complete with all it's limitiations... In all honesty though, there is a corrilation between those Team Members that are not paged via cell phone and those Team Members that are of very little use to me on a call, people that do not really take their resposibilities seriously and are lacking in training and ability...
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We run a cell phone system in addition to the pagers right now. They're helpful, but personally I like the pagers better with the way the phones are setup now (for BLS at least).
They are fully locked down, no texts/phone calls out except to supervisors and hospitals. That's fine. The annoying part is when we get a call, it sends three texts, they're always jumbled with characters, and they dont send in the right order. Here's an example.
Typical page:
SCHEDULED TRANSPORT
HOSPITAL ADDRESS
RUN NUMBER
NAME
EXTRA INFORMATION
DESTINATION ADDRESS
NOTES
TIME
With the phones, it sends like this:
NOTES
TIME
SCHEDULED TRANSPORT
HOSPITAL ADDRESS
RUN NUMBER
NAME
EXTRA INFORMATION
DESTINATION ADDRESS
So it can get confusing, especially when they throw in random slashes and colon marks.
They are fully locked down, no texts/phone calls out except to supervisors and hospitals. That's fine. The annoying part is when we get a call, it sends three texts, they're always jumbled with characters, and they dont send in the right order. Here's an example.
Typical page:
SCHEDULED TRANSPORT
HOSPITAL ADDRESS
RUN NUMBER
NAME
EXTRA INFORMATION
DESTINATION ADDRESS
NOTES
TIME
With the phones, it sends like this:
NOTES
TIME
SCHEDULED TRANSPORT
HOSPITAL ADDRESS
RUN NUMBER
NAME
EXTRA INFORMATION
DESTINATION ADDRESS
So it can get confusing, especially when they throw in random slashes and colon marks.
DrParasite
The fire extinguisher is not just for show
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text messages are a great secondary notification, but I would not rely on the as primary notification. the reason is the time from the initial dispatch to when the individual receivers (the pager/cell phone) receive the message can be between 5 min to 10+ minutes.
text paging is great for non-time sensitive messages (needing shift coverages, special operations assignments, MCIs, or information only messages), as as a secondary notification, they are amazing (no more confirming the address with dispatch, times get sent automaticly, apt numbers, etc).
In NJ, the following dispatch centers utilize text messages/alpha pages: Lifecomm (Mercer County ALS, City of Trenton BLS and several other municipalities in mercer county), REMCS (City of Newark BLS and ALS and ALS for Orange and East Orange), MedCentral (Middlesex County ALS as well as BLS for City of New Brunswick and the surrounding areas), and Somerset County Communications (EMS and FD for much of the county). I am sure there are others, but these are the only ones that I have first hand experience of working with.
It should be noted that all these agencies have the text alert feature built into their CAD, so information is automatically sent once the call is assigned. It should also be noted that the text messages are all secondary notifications, and primary dispatch is still done via radio and radio pager.
text paging is great for non-time sensitive messages (needing shift coverages, special operations assignments, MCIs, or information only messages), as as a secondary notification, they are amazing (no more confirming the address with dispatch, times get sent automaticly, apt numbers, etc).
In NJ, the following dispatch centers utilize text messages/alpha pages: Lifecomm (Mercer County ALS, City of Trenton BLS and several other municipalities in mercer county), REMCS (City of Newark BLS and ALS and ALS for Orange and East Orange), MedCentral (Middlesex County ALS as well as BLS for City of New Brunswick and the surrounding areas), and Somerset County Communications (EMS and FD for much of the county). I am sure there are others, but these are the only ones that I have first hand experience of working with.
It should be noted that all these agencies have the text alert feature built into their CAD, so information is automatically sent once the call is assigned. It should also be noted that the text messages are all secondary notifications, and primary dispatch is still done via radio and radio pager.
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redcrossemt
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Using personal cell phones for primary dispatch would likely not be a good bet for EMS response due to possible delays or non-delivery of messages.
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I've used OneCallNow.com, but it is really a voice broadcast system, not for texts. I regularly use CallFire.com which charges $0.035 a minute per call, and it what I found to be the most inexpensive service for my needs.
I'm always amazed how dependable my alphanumeric pager is. I can't remember the last time I missed a call or it didn't go through. Even with Verizon Wireless, I can't say the same about my cell phone. For public safety I'd stick to dependable and proven methods.
The only bad thing about having a pager is that I have yet to find an EMS service that provides it free to its members. I get about $5 deducted from my pay check.
I'm always amazed how dependable my alphanumeric pager is. I can't remember the last time I missed a call or it didn't go through. Even with Verizon Wireless, I can't say the same about my cell phone. For public safety I'd stick to dependable and proven methods.
The only bad thing about having a pager is that I have yet to find an EMS service that provides it free to its members. I get about $5 deducted from my pay check.
There seems to be a wide range of quality for using cell phone text messages for EMS&Fire paging. Our county dispatcher has a text message system but its extremely unreliable. Sometimes the text message comes in immediately after the pager sounds. More time than not the text message is delivers 5 to 10 minutes after the page goes out. I had a possible cardiac call that I received 90 minutes after the page. Fortunately we had already transported the Pt to the hospital and already back in quarters when I got that text. It was strange because that specific text message was sent high priority, whatever than means. My cell phone in this case was in extremely good cell tower range 100% of the time.
Other fire departments in NY state have such reliable service for text messages that they have gotten rid of their pagers.
I found the text messages very useful when the dispatcher is difficult to understand the street name. The text message always has the street name and number so there is no communication problem. Except for the case when the text message is not received until many minutes after the page. In that case the cell phone text message is useless.
Other fire departments in NY state have such reliable service for text messages that they have gotten rid of their pagers.
I found the text messages very useful when the dispatcher is difficult to understand the street name. The text message always has the street name and number so there is no communication problem. Except for the case when the text message is not received until many minutes after the page. In that case the cell phone text message is useless.
Are you able to page out updates and additional information while the SAR volunteers are responding to the command post?
redcrossemt
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Yes.
Our primary means of notification is an automated phone call to each member's phone, accompanied by a similar e-mail.
When tasked by an agency (police, RCMP, etc), the Operations Manager records a message on his phone, at which point he presses a button and OneCallNow phones all members and says "Call the Operations Pager at ###-###-####".
When each member calls the Ops Pager, the message he has just recorded will play, i.e. "We have been tasked for a missing persons search in the Rocky Mountain House area for a male reported missing from his drilling rig. We will be meeting at base at 1600 hours. Bring your 24-hour-pack and remember to use extra layers beneath your jumpsuit for the weather."
If there are updates, he can simply record a new message and send it out. Usually these are "standby" or "stand-down" messages, or perhaps letting members know that a second group will be forming at a later hour to relieve the first group.
I have to underscore again the cost comparison between 250 people with pagers, and a single online subscription that allows us to be tasked within 2 minutes of him speaking with an agency that needs us.
redcrossemt
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Let me reiterate that while Ryan's agency is not using the feature, OneCallNow does allow repages, updates, etc. They have lots of info at onecallnow.com.
thowle
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We are actually custom developing a solution that constantly monitors the frequency and when the PL is detected, it records a specified period of time and then sends it either as a text message with a # to call that gives recording, or calls the phone.
Would be pretty neat to get a speech-to-text synth. and send as text that way though!
Would be pretty neat to get a speech-to-text synth. and send as text that way though!